The railways have their gipsy bands, who travel far by caravan. Up hill and down dale their long road leads, now this way and now that, pausing where the wind blows freely over wide, empty lands, where streams wind through the green, and where sheep climb over the horizon and are swallowed by the sky. Wherever the smoking gipsy huts are resting there is a constant ring of iron and steel, strange lights and strange noises. Behind them, when they are gone, is left a double row of shining lengths of metal, in replacement of a worn-out irail.

The gipsy bands of the New Zealand Railways are the relaying gangs whose duty is to maintain the permanent way, replacing over many miles of track any weak links that the lynx-eyed engineers or inspectors have discerned, keeping the pathways of the country's trains firm and true and strong. Now they are in one place, now in another, but moved always by necessity and not by the gipsy whim. They follow hard on the heels of rust, age and decay, and hound down those enemies to their hiding places. And since rust itself is a gipsy thing, it leads them a gipsy life that no Romany knew.

There are limits to roaming, however, and system has divided New Zealand into railway districts. The Wanganui district, for instance, comprises that territory between New Plymouth and Paraparaumu, taking in also branch lines. Outside of this area another district begins, and so on. The platelayers, or relaying gangs as they are also called, must of course stay where their job is until completed, and so they take their huts with them. These are the small, rail cabins that are to be seen on many railway sidings at different stations, and which remain the homes of the platelayers, except on those occasions when a week-end trip to their real homes can be made.

Any faulty portions of the permanent way are condemned by qualified officers, who make periodical surveys of the track. Wagon loads of new rails and sleepers are then dispatched to the scene where the work is to be performed, and these materials are distributed at convenient intervals alongside the track. In due course the platelayers, comprising any number of men up to about fourteen, arrive at the nearest siding, and there they group their caravans. The men, with their materials, then go on trolleys to the nearest pile of new rails and sleepers and prepare for the change-over.

Preliminary work involves the straightening or curving of any crooked rails, and page 10 the adzing of the sleepers to take the necessary fastenings. When everything is ready, the schedule of trains is consulted, and a calculation is made as to how much time remains between the passage of one train over the spot and the arrival of the next one. According to the time available, a “break” in the old line is decided on—say four lengths, each of which is 42 feet long.